Travel Blogs from Kinloch, New Zealand

... in England and the other from Maine in the United States) and an older Kiwi couple (not the birds , just people who live in NewZealand ... Funny mental image though ... he he). It's nice to have a mixture of people from different places because you just ...

... about 3 houses). Right on the edge of Lake Wakitipu it was probably the closest to paradise that I've found yet in NewZealand. I stayed in Kinloch Lodge which has been on the site for over 100 years. I had fantastic views out over the lake and to the ...

Christmas in NewZealand is far less commercial than it is in the UK, street aren't decorated and most house only have a tree, no lights or wreaths. It felt very strange being in Nelson and seeing the Christmas shoppers hurrying around; I felt like I had ...

... hills, I'm not sure I had any speed advantage. The second challenge was to jump in the lake after the hot bike ride. A bit of a Kinloch tradition is to jump off the wharf. Bearing in mind the snow only a week previously, I had in my mind very cold ...

So when the photograph arrived to take some new paublicity shots for the lodge it was deemed a good idea to have a piccie of the staff jumping off the wharf .... to show what a great time you have, or something crazy like that! Not being able to think of ...

Giving up on Mt Cook, we headed towards Lake Wanaka. Everywhere we went, there were Lord of the Rings filming sites listed on our map. We went past the lake and up these small roads along bays winding towards Mt. Aspiring. No filming sites were ...

... With a country and western backing group!!! Quite bizarre and uniquely Timaru I would think!
Anyway, finally made it back to Kinloch and both Alfie and I breathed a sigh of relief. Glorious weather - thank goodness - as it had snowed over ...

We made it off the trail today. It was a butt kicking trail, 35 miles over 5 days with lots of elevation changes. We left Upper Caples hut after camping in a field filled with sand flies. We woke this morning at 6am, and wer on the trail by 7. We ...

Today was our second day of tramping on the Routburn trail. I personally have had my fill of the inclines but today wasn't as bad as yesterday. After many hours of hiking we finally arrived at our campsite which had astr5oturf, a toilet, AND running ...

... in the restaurant typing this!
Kinloch Lodge has been accommodation of some form or another since 1868 (the Middle Ages in NewZealand!) and sits on the side of Lake Wakatipu about an hour from Queenstown. If anyone's interested the website is ...

Well, how many times did you get a mail from a person in the middle of the track? It can only happen in NewZealand, I guess... But let's continue from where we stopped!
LEAVING INVERCARGIL
Well, after staying at Shirley's house, I took a picture ...

In the morning, we left Queens town and headed for kilnloch. As normal this was a damn scenic drive through Glenorchy and around the lake. This was our first introduction to 'country' roads - basically gravel tracks! The lodge in Kilnloch was ...

... on twisty bits of course) and was noticeably easier after overnight rain. The state of the car after all this was unbelievable! Kinloch was planned as a settlement but it never took off, and all that is there is the lodge and restaurant with a couple of ...

... Nelson aquaintance Della, we booked a couple of nights at a lodge that sits halfway between the roadheads of our track. The Kinloch Lodge sits at the head of a giant glacial lake that stretches a crooked path for 100+km eastward back towards ...